Apple iPhone gets multitasking

THE new operating system for Apple's iPhone will allow multi-tasking, letting users run more than one program at a time, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs says.

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"We weren't the first to this party but we're going to be the best,'' Jobs said today at an event at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California, to unveil version 4.0 of the iPhone operating system.

Jobs said iPhone OS 4.0 includes more than 100 new features, chief among them multitasking, which devotees of the smartphone have been clamouring for.

Explaining the delay in bringing multitasking to the iPhone, Jobs said Apple was concerned about slowing down other features or quickly draining the battery.

Apple has figured out "how to avoid those things'', he said.

Other new features include the ability to create playlists on the phone, the addition of a 5X digital zoom to the camera and the ability to use Bluetooth keyboards.

A spell check function was also added to the phone and users now can buy an application and gift it to someone directly through their iPhone.

Jobs said Apple had sold more than 50 million iPhones to date. If you include the iPod Touch, the number shoots up to 85 million, he said.

Jobs also released the latest sales figures for the iPad tablet computer.

He said Apple had sold 450,000 iPads as of today and 600,000 electronic books have been downloaded for the device.

"We're making them as fast as we can,'' Jobs said.

"Evidently we can't make enough of them yet so we are going to have to try harder.''

The Apple chief executive also said iPad owners have downloaded 3.5 million applications to the device as of today.

Apple sold more than 300,000 iPads on Saturday, its first day of availability in the US.